Faster, harder – and humble: Herbert Diess, just moved to the top VW, wants to promote the cultural change in the Group and bring this year 70 new models on the market.
imago / Sven Simon
Thursday, 03.05.2018
11:59 clock
VW wants to implement its much-vaunted cultural change – after a bumpy start – finally determined. Long-term economic success is only possible with a healthy corporate culture, said the new CEO Herbert Diess on Thursday at the Annual General Meeting in Berlin. “Volkswagen In this sense, it must become more honest, more open, more truthful, in one word, more decent. “
In addition, the manager said, for non-core businesses such as the motorcycle manufacturer Ducati or the gear manufacturer Renk would be “resilient future prospects” worked out. Volkswagen is consistently tackling the major automotive topics of the future, said Diess with a view to e-mobility and networking. “But most of the way is still ahead of us.”
The board has launched a program for cultural change under the name “Together4Integrity”. An internal whistleblower system should therefore be expanded and misconduct be punished without compromise.
Previously, the monitor used by the US authorities after the exhaust gas scandal Larry Thompson had criticized in a report to the US Department of Justice, the internal workup of the affair. Thompson is supposed to make sure that this behavior does not recur after the group’s exhaust fumes and condemnation in the US.
Not only talk, but also act
The already ex-CEO Matthias Müller proclaimed cultural change for more critical and ethical behavior has left many questions unanswered. In mid-April, the Supervisory Board announced that the corresponding goals had to be tackled boldly and openly.
Necessary are resilient structures and processes – “above all, however, we must act accordingly,” demanded Diess. “It is important to me that Volkswagen is open and transparent.” Not only nice talk, but also act accordingly, that is supposed to mean.
It also includes expressing uncomfortable truths: the path to a more open corporate culture, in which reward is rewarded rather than suffocated, has been underestimated. There are value violations in every major organization. At Volkswagen, however, this was done “far too much” into the recent past. This demanded moreover “a portion of humility”.
At the same time, the new CEO defined what he envisages under the new corporate structure – and he does not exclude outsourcing non-core businesses. This is conceivable, for example, with Ducati or Renk. However, employee representatives had rejected a sale of Renk, in which the VW subsidiary MAN holds 76 percent of the shares, strictly rejected. The division of heavy commercial vehicles – Volkswagen Truck & Bus – should be set up largely independently of the Group’s management and be fit for the stock market “in the foreseeable future”.
Diess said Volkswagen needed to get faster with decisions and their implementation. The paths are too long, and there are duplication of work in many places. This should change with the new corporate structure. The new brand groups are called “volumes” (VW, Skoda, Seat, light commercial vehicles, mobility service provider Moia), “Premium” (Audi, Porsche Holding Salzburg, Lamborghini, Ducati) and “Super Premium” (Porsche, Bentley, Bugatti).
VW sets in the current year on dozens more models. In 2018, the group will launch more than 70 new vehicles, Diess said. At the same time, he warned that the new test cycle for the determination of consumption as well as pollutant and CO2 emissions (WLTP) could lead to supply bottlenecks.